BlackBerry Torch 9800 Hands On: Similar to Tour / Bold

The new BlackBerry Torch or 9800 as some people have been calling it was announced to the media yesterday, and will be released in little over a week’s time. This is a first for RIM, as it is a slider with a QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen interface.

The handset will be looking to outdo the Motorola Droid X and iPhone 4, but not certain if they have done enough to do so. Nilay Patel from Engadget has got his hands-on one and believes that the BlackBerry Torch is a little like the Tour / Bold.

Patel makes a point of the hardware, saying how nice it feels but notes that the new BlackBerry OS 6 feels a little too fast for the hardware. While testing the unit it locked up a little, but this could be down to a simple firmware update – nothing new from a handset that has yet to be released to the public.

Once the Torch gets going it certainly shines, which you can see in the video below. The handsets closet rival will be the Samsung Epic 4G, which will be a slider showdown. Do you think that the new BlackBerry Torch will be able to compete in a market that is dominated by iPhone or Android handsets?